Phase 3: Picking up The Pieces

    Alright, so in the past we weeks I have experienced the Kick-To-The-Groin, the Shock-Reality and the Depression and Anxiety of losing a job. So, where do I go from here. There are several options.
1) Disappear - simply pack  up, take what money I can, hit  the road and never look back. Not a good idea.
2) Implode - I touched on that in my previous post. Crawling into a fatal addiction may make for a good movie plot, but again, for me, not a good idea.
3) Rise Again - I know, a bit biblical (and in no way am I comparing myself to Christ!), but given my upbringing (see my first post) the most likely and most sensible thing to do. But, not as easy an option as the first two may seem.
   Where to start, what to do? Getting up in the morning seems the toughest part. Were it not for the desire to talk to my wife for a few minutes before she leaves, and the fact now, more than ever I have to get the kids up and to school, I would probably find myself joining my cats in their 20 hour a day sleep habit. At least when I am asleep, I don't seem to be troubled by the issues at hand.
    O.K. so sleeping continually until a new job lands in my lap is not an option, so I had better start looking for another one.
    Holy crap! When was the LAST time I even THOUGHT about looking for a job?  When was the last time I looked at my resume? How do I write a cove letter? I barely even remember what to do.
    Sitting at the computer, I realize that my resume isn't even ON this one..It's on a disc somewhere. I spend some time rummaging around my desk, find the disk, dust it off, load it and transfer the files.
    Wow... 2005... the last time I opened this file. Amazing, it seems like an eternity. Before that 1996. Really, just tow jobs in the past 16 years? Is that a good thing, or a bad thing? I can't even begin to know. Looking closer of the 6 businesses I worked with over that time period only one, my most recent employer, still exist. And, looking at my references on this old resume is even more telling one of the four is dead and two of the remaining three have changed jobs at least once. Time to start over.
     Staring out the window, wondering what to do, wondering, staring, like the CD in my computer, just spinning around - - then WHAM! I'm unemployed. The mortgage is due soon, so are the cell phone bills, the utilities... I need to do something!
     Unemployment, unemployment -- oh, my God, I have to file for unemployment. How embarrassing, yet necessary, I know. The only saving grace is that I can file from home - thanks to the internet. No embarrassing lines, no stream of unending questions, no hours of explaining my situation, well at least not face to face, with an actual real person sitting across a gray metal desk, with that ever so caring 'I hope this one is quick, because I gotta pee' look on their face. So, I sit down, sign up, log-in and fill out the forms, click the buttons and wait for the money to appear in my checking account.....which, according to the site, could  take 3-5 weeks to happen.
So, the week began. An old resume infront of me and a stack of printed out forms from the Unemployment office. The building blocks of my immediate future.